Getting to Grips with Baggage!

All divers know that packing for your next diving holiday is always a bit of a headache, ensuring that every piece of diving and camera equipment that you need gets in as well as keeping within the ever tightening baggage restrictions imposed by many airlines. Recently we invited the new Silk Air Manado Office Manager, Nicolas, over to Lembeh Resort for lunch and also to get a better understanding of their excess baggage policies as well as baggage restrictions when flying from anywhere in the world via Singapore to North Sulawesi so we can help our guests better.

It was confirmed to us that Silk Air is not part of the Star Alliance program but that they do fully co-operate with many of the major international airlines and so your bags are usually able to be checked all the way through to Manado, which is one less thing to worry about.

When traveling to and from North America you are entitled according to the Piece Allowance System, which is usually 2 pieces of baggage weighing up to 23kg (50lbs) each. When departing from Manado you will also be entitled to this as long as you check your bags all the way through to your final destination in North America. Any excess bags are then charged at a certain rate per bag.  When traveling to and from most other destinations in the world especially Europe, airlines will impose a weight restriction on your baggage but this can vary from airline to airline. Many airlines have special baggage allowances for scuba diving equipment and you should always check with your airline with regards to this before flying. Silk Air do allow an additional 10kg for scuba diving equipment for persons traveling to and from Manado, to find out the full breakdown of their rules, click here.  Unfortunately being a Gold Member of United Airlines or other such programs won’t help with getting you extra baggage allowance; you need to be a member of the Singapore Airlines Kris Flyer or PPS frequent flyer programs in order to get some more baggage privileges.

The best piece of advice is to make sure that you always double check with your airline before packing with regards to their baggage policy especially with regards to scuba diving equipment. Also pack light on the clothing front – you will spend most of your time underwater in your wetsuit searching for the weird and wonderful critters we have here in Lembeh! If you have any questions with regards to this or any other part of your trip, just drop us an email.